The sounds I'll never hear again...

Sometimes, I hear sounds and I wonder if I will ever hear them again...

Before I get into that though, I want to say this: I am only 21 years old, but I sometimes feel much older. Sometimes kids that are only 4 years younger than me stare at me like I am crazy because I talk about a time when we didn't have the Internet at my house. When I recall a time when our cell phone was the size of a real phone. When I laugh at the idea of buying tapes for music. It is simply mind boggling to me to think about how quickly things change today. It makes me wonder what will be different in a few years.

I am sitting in the quiet office right now and in the next room I hear the shrill spinning of an electric pencil sharpener. It takes me back to a time when we only used hand crank pencil sharpeners. When there would be a whole line of 3-foot-tall 3rd graders standing in attention, waiting to use the little silver machine. The sound of grinding wood echoing through the classroom. Now everyone uses electric sharpeners. How long before mechanical pencils completely take over and there is no such thing as a No. 2 anymore? Then even electric models will be cast aside like over washed clothes and unloved Barbie dolls.

What else is becoming obsolete? What other noises do you NEVER hear anymore? The obnoxious dial up of the Internet? We hated that sound, but now, in its absence... do we feel the same? What about way a crank telephone clicks? Or a train sounds? Or even the way a car sounds? Yes, they even have cars that run silently. How long before that is the norm and the low rumble of an engine fades into the distance...?

Technology is so great. But what is it replacing...? Is there anything we will miss in 50 years and be too old to remember? Will turning up my hearing aid in 50 years even do me any good, or will I simply hear the silence of a perfectly tuned out world? I guess I'll just have to wait and see...